from the don't-mess-with-dojinshi dept

Over a decade ago, we first wrote about how manga and anime in Japan was thriving in part due to the rise of fan fiction (even for-profit fan fiction) and the fact that the lawyers for official publications didn't try to shut it down. Instead, they realized that such fan fiction was often quite good for the original, official versions of the products. Over the years since then, we've had a bunch of similar stories. Rather than trying to hit fans with copyright infringement claims, publishers were willing to embrace those fans and it helped everyone in the industry.

However, many in the fan fiction -- dojinshi -- market in Japan are now worried that the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement may now kill off that happy, mutually beneficial (even if technically infringing) setup. At issue is that the TPP may require more stringent enforcement of copyrights, even when the copyright holder has no problem with what's happening.

Usami and other creators of fan fiction, however, could face the possibility of legal prosecution as copyright violators in the future, depending on the outcome of TPP negotiations.

Some countries are apparently demanding that Japan clamp down on knock-off and pirated works in the intellectual property arena, even if the copyright holder does not object to it.

The more cynical among you might point to the fact that the dojinshi market's proof that copyright maximalism can be counterproductive, and allowing free flowing "infringement" among fans creating derivative works, so bothers some people that they feel the need to kill off such an important counter-example to the maximalist narrative. However, those involved in the space in Japan recognize that not enforcing copyright law has been better for everyone:

Many experts say the Japanese anime and manga subculture has thrived due in part to a tacit understanding in society that fan fiction should be accepted to a certain extent to allow room for amateurs to shine.

The recent Comic Market is one indication of the level of demand for dojinshi and other works of fan fiction. A total of 520,000 visitors attended--many of them teenagers or in their 20s--while about 35,000 groups sold dojinshi and other related goods.

Some are even worried that it might extend to cracking down on cosplay:

“The creation of derivative works has helped the expansion of the market (for anime and manga), a rich gray zone built based on a gentleman’s agreement between original artists and amateur creators,” [lawyer Kansaku Fukui] said.

If the copyright law was enforced without a formal complaint, not only dojinshi, but also parodied creations of movies and literature, could be subject to a crackdown, Fukui said.

He added that even cosplayers could be a target, especially if their costumes were elaborately made and if a video of the costume play was uploaded on the Internet.

“If people think about the possibility of coming under questioning, they might cower,” he said.

I would imagine that the various negotiators of the TPP probably aren't all that familiar with anime, manga or cosplay -- but pissing off fans of all three probably isn't particularly wise.

from the ensuring-only-pirates-will-have-access-to-its-comics dept

DRM is rearing its malformed head again and biting the hands that feed it. Rather than simply making an otherwise useful product useless unless requirements x, y and z are met, this time DRM is issuing a clawback on purchased rented digital goods.

Date: May 30th at 11:59pm (US Pacific Time) Details: As of May 30th 2013 at 11:59pm (US Pacific Time) users will no longer be able to view digital manga content on JManga.com. At this time all purchased and free digital manga content will be erased from all JManga Member’s accounts.

And, yes, no downloads are allowed, according to the FAQ.

It is not possible to download manga from My Page.

So, the pirates win again. JManga's DRM will allow the distributor to delete paid for manga from customers' accounts, but presumably all DRM-stripped pirate "accounts" will remain unaffected in perpetuity.

It began promisingly enough.

JManga launched with much fanfare in 2011. This company was backed by the 36 publishers of the Japanese Digital Comics Association, and it was created as a laudable response to the then rampant fan-based scanlation (piracy and English-language translation) of Japanese comics. By offering a legitimate option these publishers hoped to provide the content that was obviously desired by fans.

Unfortunately, things went downhill quickly thanks to pricing issues (mainly that they were too high) and a failure to capitalize on a rapidly growing smartphone market. Now, it's out of business and its insistence on protecting its products with DRM has resulted in the following scorecard -- pirates affected: 0; paying customers affected: ALL.

What we have here is a yet another example of the fact that DRM does nothing but punish the paying customer. It doesn’t actually stop piracy; in this case piracy was already rampant thanks to readily available scanners and a large and enthusiastic fan base.

All that was accomplished with JManga was that the legitimate customer was punished for being honest and paying for the content they received. The pirates, on the other hand, weren’t bothered at all.

I wish more publishers could learn from this mistake, because the hostility that has been shown toward JManga customers is appalling.

"Hostility" is the correct term. Protecting your offerings from those who aren't paying by making those who actually support you subject to anything from minor annoyances to HAVING ALL THEIR PURCHASES DELETED can't really be described as anything but. Adding a layer of perversity to the mix is the fact that JManga is still allowing customers to purchase its products until March 26th, despite the fact that these too will be deleted on May 30th.

When you combine digital goods with DRM, it's lose-lose for paying customers. It turns purchases into rentals and subjects purchasers to the whims of the company. Whether its a verification server being shut down or a company going out of business and taking all its content with it, it all spells bad news for those who exchanged money for goods not even worth the paper the license isn't printed on.

from the your-move,-Disney dept

There's a rhetorical question that often gets thrown our way here at Techdirt: "If you remove the protection of copyright, how are artists supposed to make a living?" Despite many, many answers having been given, the question persists. Here's another look at a possible answer in progress.

This means that after 15 September anyone in the world will be free to novelize, televise, create merchandise, or in any way adapt the original work for either commercial or non-commercial purposes without having to pay royalties. This is the latest move in the writer's quest to find alternatives to the “outdated” model of intellectual property rights.

Earlier this year, Sato ended his relationship with the original publisher of the Black Jack series and started his own publishing website, where his works are currently uploaded. That was the first step in Sato's quest to discover how artists might make a living without relying on exclusivity and enforcement.

“The traditional model of making profit by holding onto a copyright is gradually going stale” he said. “I want to explore the possible benefits to authors beyond this system.”

To this end, Sato will also be displaying his work at the pixiv Zingaro in Tokyo and providing a copier for visitors to use to "replicate whatever they want." A few more details of his plan are available at the pixiv Zingaro site. Sato will not actually be renouncing his copyright. Instead, he has chosen to not enforce it, in essence granting the entire world free rein to use his work to create foreign language adaptations, applications, commercial films, TV series, produce merchandise or anything else the "second users" can come up with.

The fine print on the deal reads as such (translation a bit wonky -- via Chrome):

Terms of Use: do not need to contact us in advance.
Royalty others: we do not require any reward.
You are happy if you can use the work freely.

Sato admits he has no idea how this will turn out, but is clearly interested in observing the results. His feeling seems to be (again, translation issues) that there has to be a better system than the current one and the only way we'll find something better, or one that fits more in line with today's technology, is to head in the opposite direction and see where that leads us.

Someone is sure to point out that Sato is only doing this after selling 10 million copies thanks to existing copyright laws, as if that somehow negates the effort he's making. I invite those particular someones to observe all the other artists out there who have sold millions but still clutched that copyright close to their chests for the remainder of their lifetimes and well into the lives of their heirs.

from the why-not-sell-them-what-they-want? dept

Somehow you rather expect the head of the WIPO to come out with a statement on the potential benefits of patenting the World Wide Web. But you probably don't look to the WIPO website to carry stuff like this:

Like most comics, manga (roughly translated as "whimsical pictures") is rooted in sequential art - a narrative made up of images and presented in sequence. The earliest examples of Japanese sequential art are thought to date from the 12th century Chōjū Jinbutsu Giga animal scrolls.

The term "manga" is believed to have been first used by the renowned 16th [sic] century woodblock print (ukiyo-e) artist, Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849).

Manga continues to enjoy a broad global appeal but the industry is suffering acutely from the scourge of piracy.

Here's the WIPO article's explanation of what happened:

When it was first launched internationally, manga occupied a niche market in many countries. However, it soon captured the imagination of readers around the world, spawning an enthusiastic international fan base that became increasingly frustrated by the inability to access the same content as their Japanese counterparts. The need to translate manga from Japanese meant there were inevitable delays in their international release. Moreover, many titles were never released internationally because they were deemed inappropriate for specific markets, were unsuccessful in Japan, or were only published locally by independent publishers.

The Internet offered fans a wonderful solution. Many learned Japanese, acquired the original manga, then scanned, translated, edited and posted them on the Internet for free downloading. Alas, what began as a practice driven by enthusiastic fans has become a serious blight on the industry. So-called scanlation - the act of scanning, translating and posting manga on the Internet - is, in fact, striking at the heart of manga and threatening its very existence.

Unauthorized scans or "raws" are typically generated by individuals who scan books into electronic format, a practice known as jisui, which translates as "to cook for oneís self." With the uptake of e-book readers and computer tablets, jisui has become a fully-fledged business with the emergence of popular scanlation aggregator websites hosting thousands of manga episodes and making them available free of charge. Those who do scanlation rake in profits through advertising on their own websites and also earn points which can be turned into cash for each download made from an aggregator website.

This shows that publishers were doing such a poor job meeting the demand for manga outside Japan that it drove some fans to go to the trouble of learning Japanese, acquiring the original manga, scanning them, translating them, editing and then posting them on the Internet. That sounds like an incredible business opportunity for manga publishers to "rake in profits through advertising on their own websites," instead of letting others profit. But unauthorized sites were left unchallenged, and flourished as a result:

Scanlation groups, of which there are now well over a thousand, are perpetuating a highly corrosive form of piracy that is threatening the industry, causing global manga sales to plummet and forcing publishers to lay off staff. From 2007 to 2009, for example, U.S. manga sales fell by 30 percent forcing a leading publisher to lay off 40 percent of its workforce.

What exactly were the manga publishers doing to staunch these losses overseas during the last four years? Absolutely nothing - they only started trying to capture all that lost revenue this year:

But major manga publishers are fighting back by reaching out to manga fans in new ways. This year, Kadokawa Group Publishing Co. Ltd. (Kadokawa) simultaneously released a large number of popular titles in key Asian markets. Companies like Tezuka Productions are making available legal, electronic English-language versions of popular manga for tablet computers and, earlier this year the Japan Book Publishers Association launched a series of initiatives to clamp down on unauthorized scanlation activities.

The question has to be: if it was clear that the scanlation groups were "raking in" profits from online manga, why weren't the publishers offering authorized copies to meet this huge demand back in 2007?

This is a classic tale of old-style media companies refusing to seize the opportunities offered by the Internet's "wonderful solution" to foreign distribution. Instead, the manga publishers assumed their customers would passively wait until some far-off day when authorized versions were finally made available. And they seem to regard it as extraordinary that, being denied manga through official channels, those fans should be driven by their passion to find other ways to obtain the latest productions of the art form they loved so much.

Of course, the WIPO article is silent on this massive failure by the publishers; instead, it falls back on the tired old rhetoric that piracy is "killing" manga:

Rampant manga piracy is making it increasingly difficult for manga artists (mangaka) to earn a living from their work. Many rely on royalty payments to survive. These are modest at the best of times, especially for new artists, and are generally insufficient for most to make ends meet. Of Japanís estimated 3,000 professional mangaka, only around 10 percent earn enough to be able to devote all of their time and energy to their art. The simple truth is that if manga artists cannot earn a living from their art, there will be no manga.

The simple truth is that manga artists could have earned much more from their art had manga publishers not been too lazy to consider changing their old business models, and had started selling international customers online products they were clearly desperate to buy.